Weecaek's BATs

[Weecaeks 29]

Good Day everybody. i ve been playing sc4 for some time now and im finally giving a go at custom bating

im using Google Sketchup8 and i have just started. This is supposed to be a manhattan luxury department store and i havent thought up a name for it yet. i am planning to texture it similiar to the NYBT buildings out there and im also planning to put some Art Deco designs on it as well (mainly on the window sills you see that are protruding out in rows). the semi-retangular-cylindrical slab you see on the right of the building is going to be a transparent elevator. i also need to find AC and ventilation units for my roof. The building seems a bit small as one box (the template im using) is one square unit ingame.

i hope you guys will give my advice on how to improve the building and offer suggestions on where to find the textures.

thanks

[AlexandrosB13 184]

First of all, welcome to bating

This looks ok so far, but remember that we can only judge by seeing GMAX preview renders. I would recommend bating with gmax, if you have just started using sketch up why dont you simple go to gmax instead of it? I mean if you are using sketch up for years and you know the software well, you probably want to use it, but if you are new to it then go to gmax.Cause, you may have problems opening it with gmax, or maybe exporting problems. When you first start to use the programm, you will think that you will never be able to learn the entire thing, but you will if you want to.

Hope a good batter is coming to ST

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Wow!!! another batter I so happy the batting economy is going great. Your model looks great, can't wait to see more.

You can get you texture by just searching around, I love using google. You can type in bricks, brick textures, concrete, rocks, asphalt, ect...

To get your scaling right each floor needs to to around 4.5 meters to 5.0 meters, the ground floor needs to be a little higher.

  Edited August 25, 2011 by Aaron Graham  

[IDS2 3,344]

Nice building! It looks like you have plenty of detail, although it always helps to have as much detail as possible so that it looks good ingame. One of the problems with Sketchup is that while just texturing details onto the building looks fine in Sketchup, it looks ugly when you bring it into gmax.

Regarding textures, it's always best to find one that's close to what you're looking for and then modify it to fit your needs. It's almost impossible to find the perfect texture, but start at one of these 1 2 3 and do the fine tuning in Photoshop or GIMP and you should be good to go.

  Edited August 25, 2011 by IDS2  

[anotn 222]

That was fast.

Your model looks fairly detailed but be aware of how you scale things as Aaron Graham tells. I usually try to stick to real world dimensions and scale it on the z-axis before exporting. The entrance looks like it's of another scale than the rest of the building.

I agree with AlexandrosB13 that you should show previews made with BAT, if you don't know how to export your sketchup model to gmax you should check out Sketchup to Gmax (100% free) if you have the pro version of Sketchup you don't need that and could just export as .3ds. I'm not sure though if I agree with him entirely on the Sketchup/GMAX issue, Sketchup is a powerful tool but you need to be aware of what you do and how the model will behave in Gmax or 3dsMax as you need to use either for export, just as IDS2 pointed out. For the best result (IMHO) you should use 3dsMax but if you do not have the patience or time to learn a new tool, working in Sketchup is an alternative, maybe do the modeling in Sketchup and then add textures and lights in Gmax is a good way.

[Weecaeks 29]

well this is what i have so far after an hour of texturing. Does anybody know approximately how big the people are compared to one square unit ingame? That way i can scale it correctly. By the looks of it and by comparing the window pics to the door, i say its fairly scaled. i have been using sketchup for some time and is fairly familiar with it. Rendering it takes alot of time but i can give a quick render in sketchup later. Also, can the lighting effects be done in gmax after i texturing it in sketchup? (i dont want to start using gmax now to build the model since i would have to learn it and would take alot of time. something i wont have very soon). might give a rendered preview tmrw

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

Welcome to Batting!

Your textures aren't that good I'm afraid. On the left wall, you can see where the texture starts and stops (the horizontal line). The marble is also WAY to big to be real.

Try CG Textures to find some nice textures. They should blend, removing that line. Then: use a program like Photoshop to make an image-file that fits your model (so it doesn't repeat too much)

Size... I'm still struggeling to get that one right... One thing I've learned: Sims don't fit the Maxis-buildings

I've been given the advice to make the building 133% higher than the real thing. But the only way to be sure is to make a draft export and see it in the game, comparing it with other buildings.

Good luck!